Ahhhh, Reflection...

Learning so much. Creating. Been reading about all sorts of things, from Compassionate Communication to The Magic of Thinking Big to Natural Hygiene and the 80/10/10 Diet. Isn't it lovely how all aspects of our lives, when they are in harmony, come together to support each other and encourage growth in ever new areas? I read someone say, the other day, Diversity is the goal of Nature. So when we open ourselves to the infinite expanse that is us, we can invite and discover all kinds of new things. I recently discovered that I actually love mathematics. They're fun. Figuring out a math problem is so purposeful, so real. School made it really artificial, and boring, but it really doesn't have to be when you have an intention to learn. And I'm discovering that I love to run, and I love to hike and walk through forest swamps barefoot to avoid the prickly electric leaves, even when I'm carrying my shoes on my back. I'm learning that I can adapt to any situation and make it amazing! [I peed on my shorts the other day whilst in the forest and I just pulled 'em up and jogged out of there. When I was thirsty I tore open bamboo shoots and scraped out the tart water with my teeth] I'm learning that I love to drink water, I love to be hydrated, and I love to be grateful. I'm re-discovering how much fun it is to learn. I'm overcoming challenges with eating, and I'm learning to eat enough fruit. Definitely not at any kind of completion of my goals there, but it's fun, it's a process.

Amanda's Essay on Righteous Veganism

I invite you to imagine with me for a moment. I want you to imagine that the Holocaust was continuing to this day. Every day for over 50 years, million upon billions of people are  being violently murdered, families being torn apart. Mothers are raped and fathers slaughtered, children stolen at birth and placed in dark, cold confinement with little room to breathe or cry. All for the sake of profit and justified through a veil of superiority pseudo-religious bull crap. I want you to know today - this is our reality.
Non-human beings of sentience, of heart and mind and flesh and blood, are being treated as nothing more than lifeless commodities. Mothers are being raped. Small newborn children are being ground up to bits in meat grinders before they have a chance to see the light of the sun, justified only by the reason that "they have no purpose" other than to be used for commodity. Beings are being dipped into scalding hot water, fully conscious.
This is not a piece of feel-good writing designed to stir up within you a sense of general compassion for the suffering of animals. This is a wake up call - This is an ice-cold bucket of water in your face at 4 in the morning. This is a call to action. This is what is presently, actually occurring every single day, today, right at this moment, on the planet in which you call home. There is a Holocaust happening, and it is against every single one of us. Yes, I am speaking of non-human beings and human beings alike. This is a war of the mind, to be sure. But we must realize that while we can march and type essays and shout from the rooftops and move out of our countries, our non-human brothers and sisters are being forced against their will to lead short lives of deprivation and misery. We have a choice. They do not. No animal wants to be raised in slavery and killed for food. Why would any sane person consume the products of death and disease of the mind?
Consider the nightly news stories, newspaper articles and other countless mainstream news outlets which depict a suffering, malnourished, war-ravaged world. Consider the ongoing violence of war that human beings have been afflicting upon one another and this planet for the past several decades. I want you to remember the bleakness of the mentality that pervades this mainstream media and keeps a black cloud over the minds of the populace.
This death-war-suffering culture of apathy that is blasted from the mainstream is directly correlated with the mass population's willingly apathetic support and tolerance of the Animal Holocaust. When we buy the products of death and suffering, and consume the products of death and suffering, we are inarguably supporting the mass murder of not only, but very much so, our non-human family, but also our human family as well. Think about it: If no one tolerated the murder of non-human sentient beings, there would be absolutely zero tolerance of mass political corporate warfare. If we genuinely cared, as a species, about every being's unique, beautiful life here on earth, the apathy that allows an irresponsible government to abuse, harass and murder our human family would be virtually non-existent. Why wouldn't we use on of our greatest collective assets, capitalism, to control the very things that seem to be totally out of our grasp?
Did you know that a vegan saves at least 400 lives every year? For every person that becomes vegan, that is one less person buying and consuming the products that the industrial slaughterhouse complex so desperately wants you to buy. If you remain in false ignorance after reading this essay, you continue to contribute to the number of animals being murdered every day (at least 383 million today). When you consume, wear, use, and buy the products created by this culture of death, you are directly supporting that culture and its premises. But when you refuse to consume, wear, use, or buy any of these products, you are choosing to align your life with your inherent moral values of peace, compassion, and justice.
I want to ask you one question. If you have compassion for animals, and believe that all beings, human and non-human, deserve to be treated with love, what is stopping you from going vegan? When you really look at it, I know you will realize that your reason are arbitrary at best. We all know that there is no humane way to kill another being.
So if you have been considering going vegan, go vegan. Just do it. It doesn't matter what your parents think, what your friends think, what your teachers think, or what anyone else thinks about it. If you stand firm in your beliefs you will inspire the people around you to do the same.
If you have been wanting to go vegan but are finding it difficult for some reason of are worried about your food options, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can give you tons of great resources, tips, and help you develop a plan to succeed. If you feel intimidated, I can help you sort through all of this and start with a simple foundation. Only you know what your heart is saying to you. Are you going to listen?

Ready For Fresh Local Fruit? We are!

Bananas..there are bananas everywhere. They are all very ripe. And I'm learning that the big bananas are not actually my favorite. Lol. It's okay, because I know they are sustaining me and filling me with life loving energy until the fruit and veggie season really picks up and everything begins grow and interesting delicious things show up in the food co-op. I'm super super excited..I've been eating a lot of champagne mangos and  halawy dates, and of course banans. ;) hahaha.
They actually aren't that sweet..or flavorful. But they do make yummy ice cream. We're going to give people banana ice cream when it gets warm. Also did we mention? We're having a Spring Fruitluck next Saturday, on April 20th from 3pm to 8 pm. If you're around you should check it out. It's going to be super fabulous, with lots of fresh good fruit and beautiful persons.
The other day we each ate half a watermelon for breakfast. I don't think I've had a good melon before that in literally, months. And it was truly good :) The only thing I wish is that I could've ate the whole thing myself, lol.
I'm so grateful for my life. I'm so happy to be my best friend. So much I (we) have wanted is beginning to manifest and it's beautiful. It's beautiful.

So love this spring for all it's worth and live to the fullest.

Spring Inspiration - For the Love of Fruit :)

A Delicious Salsa made from Mango, Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber, Cilantro, Rainbow Chard Stem and Green Onion. Pile into a Chard Leaf and enjoy :)

Simple Guacamole made of avocado and lots of tomatoes, cilantro, ginger, and celery. Scoop with celery boats.

Lettuce Tacos with smooshed Avocado, Tomato, Red Pepper, Cilantro, Carrot, and whatever else you wanna put in there :) Very easy and yummy way to eat your greens.

Fresh and Simply Spring Salad: thinly sliced Cucumbers, Avocado slices, Purple Carrot slices, Sprouts, thin slices of Celery, and some citrus juice. I used lemon and mineola. This is super yummy :)

And last but certainly not least, this Banana Ice Cream Fruit Tart:
Just take a small amount of dates and a tiny bit of nuts and process them to form a crust. Top with 'nanna ice cream and some fresh fruits and there you have a simple low-fat creamy raw desert. 

We hope you enjoyed all these pictures and have fun experimenting with the low-fat high-carb raw vegan lifestyle, and be sure to try some of these simple and delicious recipes and tell us what you think :)
Have a wonderful spring, full of rebirth and excitement!

And eat as much fruits as you wish :)

love,

the nama sisters

FRUIT IS LIFE AND LOVE AND TRUTH

Raw fruit-filled life = LOVE and TRUTH.

Eating simply creates simpler emotions and thoughts. Mono meals are great to give the body a chance to relax from the confusion of complex mixed foods. Cooked complex foods are more confusing for the body, but even raw complexity can be confusing since this is not found in nature. You walk through the forest, you find a bush of berries, you eat as many berries as you want until you feel full, and you go on your way. You wouldn't save some for later to eat with the peaches you're going to find.

Eat fruit. Eat lots of fruits - no deprivation baby! Eat to your heart's content, and feel gratitude for the life and awareness that you are integrating into your physical form. Plants are life. Listen to your body. Listen to your food. Listen to the birds, and the rustle of trees in the wind. Listen. Breathe. Be. Live.

Fruit is LIFE !!!

Hey everyone :) We have lots of stories to share. Our kitchen is now filled with multiple jars of kale chips, which, if you live in the Pittsburgh area, you can now buy for 5 dollars a bag. We're selling them at local coffee shops like the Java House on California Avenue, and we sold our first bag to our friends yesterday. It was their first time tasting kale chips and one said that it was better than he anticipated, and the other said they had "a complex flavor." We are so excited to be sharing our home-made recipes with people and are hoping to cater to local events.
NamaSisters has also been expanding in more personal ways. Last week, a friend of ours who has been suffering from medication and who had cancer two years ago hired us to teach her how to eat and live raw. She's been fatigued and has learned about raw foods and previously attended seminars but did not have the support, motivation and knowledge of how to apply it until now. We will be going to her house to teach her the intuitive approach that we take to scientific nutrition and also how to make delicious meals for herself. We hope to reach out to many other people and help them individually as well. If you or someone you know needs coaching or even advice, please let us know. :)

"We were not sent into this world to do anything into which we cannot put our heart."

-John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Sustainabilty-what is it really?

We attended a lively party-meeting in the Squirrel Hill part of Pittsburgh the other afternoon/evening called a Sustainability Salon, and the topic was, for this particular Salon, food.
So you can imagine our excitement when we were invited by the owner of the home, Maren, to come to this gathering of Pittsburghian souls. There were farmers and consumers alike, and many familiar faces. We heard a good many speakers talk about organic farming, localization, farmer's markets, and permaculture. One guy even talked about his garlic farm. The last speaker we stayed for was, you can guess it...a cattle and pig farmer. He talked about his practices, and how he develops relationships with his animals. He spoke about them with love, and compassion. But one thing we noticed was that he never once used the accurate word to describe what he does with them before they are dead bodies, shipped off to markets and stores around the area. He used the word "processed"...um, excuse me? Did you forget to mention that you murder them?
Hm. The word sustainable does not accurately describe the production of meat from animals because a cow eats about 70 pounds of grass per day, and the man who was speaking said they aim for 80 % devastation of the particular pasture that he allows the cows to be in that particular day. I think we just need to re-evaluate what sustainability truly means, and of course this is an open-ended idea, because it means something different for everyone, since it is a value that we develop within ourselves.

At the gathering, we felt a strain because there was such a tight schedule of speakers that there really was no free time to share ideas and have open ended discussions with the 60 + people that were there. It was speakers talking to an audience, and it felt like we again were in the role of the consumer.
In this cycle of supply and demand, the consumer is always at the mercy of the supplier. This is not what sustainability looks like..and what we need to do is break free once and for all from this system. We need to start teaching each other the practices we are applying and know will work for others. Because it's not about simply profiting for your own family, it is about creating long-lasting changes for a community, changes that eventually branch off and touch the entire world. It's all pretty on the surface to pretend like we are doing something but when you get together with people, you need to have open-ended conversation and a relaxed environment so people can use their imaginations and truly make things happen.